Axial-flow compressors are used in a variety of applications to compress a fluid from an inlet pressure to a discharge pressure which is higher than inlet pressure. Axial-flow compressors typically comprise a rotatable assembly of a plurality of blades mounted to a rotor and a static assembly of a plurality of vanes mounted to a casing. The cross-sectional area of the fluid passage in an axial-flow compressor typically decreases as the fluid travels from inlet to discharge. In operation, the rotating blades accelerate the fluid into a diminishing cross-sectional area, thus compressing or pressurizing the fluid.
Applications of axial-flow compressors include, but are not limited to, gas turbine engines including those used in air-, land-, and sea-based applications for providing electrical generation and/or propulsion, expendable machines such as for missile propulsion systems, and other rotating machinery generally. In many applications there is a need in the art for axial compressors which can be achieved at a lower cost of manufacture and operation. Efforts to reduce the cost of manufacture have included, for example, the substitution of metal engine components with those made of lightweight composite materials which tend to be less expensive to procure and machine to achieve the desired compressor components. However, material substitution alone is insufficient to achieve the desired cost savings when manufacturing and operating an axial compressor, particularly for expendable applications where the manufacturing cost is lost after a single use.
It is thus desired for an improvement in the art of manufacturing and operating axial compressors to provide less expensive alternatives to existing designs.